Although in Buncombe County, North Carolina, the presence of Border Patrol has not been confirmed — at least for now — fear has nevertheless escalated in the community.
Since last weekend, Latino families have been forced to live with the terrifying uncertainty of not knowing when they are safe — or not — in the very city and county where they live.
As rumors spread and unverified information circulates on social media and in community groups, the Latino community has remained on constant alert.
A fear that is having real consequences in people’s lives.
Workers choosing to stay home, businesses without customers, children missing school, empty buses, and parents having certain conversations with their children for the first time.
And above all, overwhelming stress in a community still struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene.
Fear Inside Latino Households
“People are more afraid and stressed than ever. Many families decided not to send their children to school these days,” Ponkho Bermejo, co-director of Beloved Asheville, told Enlace Latino NC.
Bermejo lives in Swannanoa, an area with many mobile home parks where the Latino community is still recovering. “Mostly single mothers have talked to me. They’re terrified that their children will go to school, they’ll go to work, and then they won’t see each other again,” he said.
His organization has decided to recommend that families stay home through their WhatsApp and messaging channels, even though there are no confirmed reports of Border Patrol presence in the area. “We believe the safest and most prudent thing is to take precautions.”
The organization Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción (CIMA) has also shared messages with the same guidance on its social media.
One of its latest posts says: “If you must go to work, take precautions. Stay alert and cautious. If you need food, transportation or if a friend or family member has been detained, call the community hotline. You are not alone.”
Fear in Asheville intensified when on Friday, Nov. 14, the city’s mayor, Esther Manheimer, stated, “We have learned that Asheville could be a target city.” The next day, the first unconfirmed report of CBP/Border Patrol presence began to circulate.
And from there, rumors grew and intensified throughout the week.
Children’s Fear for Their Parents
The rumors, combined with disturbing images of immigrant detentions in Charlotte, sowed fear in the community. And above all, uncertainty over whether — and when — the Charlotte Web operation would reach the western part of the state filled many families with terror.
That was the case for a teenager we’ll call E.
E is 17. Her father, from Mexico, has lived in the city for 20 years and does not have documents. “I’m really sad; I don’t want to lose my dad. He hasn’t left the house these days,” she told Enlace Latino NC.
For the first time, she feels danger is too close. Last Sunday, her father asked to talk: he wanted to give her instructions on what to do if he were arrested.
“He showed me where he keeps his lifetime savings, where his documents and important things are,” E said, emotional. It was the first time they talked about the possibility of being separated — of him being deported.
“I always knew our family had this situation. I grew up knowing it. But now it feels more real. And I… I just want to be with my dad.”
E fears her father would have to return to his hometown, where she says life is more dangerous and he would lose everything he has built in western North Carolina — especially her.
Restaurants Without Customers or Workers
E’s father works as a dishwasher at a downtown restaurant, where he was given the weekend off due to rumors of federal presence.
The situation of Latino workers unable to complete their shifts has repeated across several businesses in the city, as Enlace Latino NC confirmed during visits to the area.
We also contacted the Heart of the West Asheville Business Coalition. Its representative, Katie McDaniel, owner of Cooperative Coffee Roasters, confirmed that fear has reached both workers and business owners.
“We are all feeling scared,” McDaniel said, adding that even businesses owned by white U.S. citizens “feel responsible for the safety of their staff and customers.”
She added that at various restaurants in West Asheville, Latino employees avoided showing up to work out of fear of encountering federal agents.
McDaniel noted that the uncertainty comes at a particularly difficult moment for small businesses still recovering from Hurricane Helene. “It’s a destabilizing situation. We don’t know what it means if Border Patrol shows up at our workplaces,” she said.
According to her, owners from different sectors in the area have expressed the same concern: how to protect their workers without clear information about federal operations or official guidance on how to act in case of a detention.
Nearly Empty Buses in the City
In recent days, Asheville’s buses have been running nearly empty. Seimy Mendoza, a community organizer with Just Economics, confirmed to this outlet that last weekend she did not see the usual riders.
“People who usually take the bus to jobs in hospitality weren’t there in the afternoon,” she explained. She also noted there were “very few people” compared to other weekends.
Mendoza — who was at the bus station monitoring the situation — attributes the drop to fear and the perception of risk.
“People understand the risk is not only directed at the immigrant community,” she said, “but also at those who might be profiled as people of color.”
>>> The Economic Impact: What the Border Patrol Operation Left Behind in Charlotte
Fear Spreads to Rural Counties
Fear has reached other western counties as well. Ricardo Bello Ball, of Unidxs, told Enlace Latino NC that “there is a lot of fear and a lot of desperation in the community.” Unidxs works in the rural counties of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain, where CBP presence has not been confirmed.
But even so, “the community’s mental health is deeply affected.”
In the area of Hickory and Lenoir, where Border Patrol presence was confirmed for at least one day this week, terror led families to remain inside their homes.
“Fear is real here. Families haven’t gone out for three days,” said Soraya Valdez Place of Centro Latino de Hickory on Thursday. “They call me and tell me they feel like animals locked in cages,” she said.
The situation in the west is repeating itself in every county, where psychological fear alone has been enough to disrupt the lives of people who make up 12% of the state’s population.
PODCAST
Después de la tormenta
Hace un año, el huracán Helene golpeó al oeste de Carolina del Norte. La comunidad latina respondió con algo más fuerte que la tormenta: solidaridad.
🎧 En este episodio, conoce cómo las organizaciones latinas transformaron la crisis en resiliencia.
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